05Apr 2010 by R&O No Comments

Nouveau Flamenco at its best

Arts, Music, Of Interest, People
I was poking around on Youtube the other day looking for videos about the Boss RC-2 loop station pedal and stumbled across nouveau flamenco guitarist John Gilliat. Mr. Gilliat won the Roland company's loop station competition in 2009, and for good reason. This guy kicks ass. I purchased the 2001 album Peace directly from his web site (why don't more artists do that?!?) and was amazed that he's producing top quality music from his home studio in Langley, B.C. and that I've never had the pleasure of listening to any of it. If you're looking for Jesse Cook without the snobbery or Gipsy Kings without the tight polyester pants this is the music for you. I only wish he offered embedded cover art, higher bitrate and meta data with his…
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31Mar 2010 by R&O No Comments

The Worried Gorilla

Of Interest, Silly Stuff
So what makes animals so blissful and happy? Could it be the fact that they're unaware of their own impending death? That's one of the things that separates animals from humans and may be the root cause of our problems as we make our way through life to our inevitable end. The Onion News had an interesting piece about primatologists at The Tulane National Primate Research Center teaching Quigley, a Western Lowland Gorilla about his impending demise and the reaction upon learning that his stay on earth is not permanent. A deeply thoughtful and penetrating look at how science may, at times, do more harm than good. Enjoy. [youtube]CJkWS4t4l0k[/youtube]
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26Mar 2010 by R&O No Comments

My Free Boat

Of Interest, People, Silly Stuff
So you're having a fight with your husband and looking for the best way to get back at him for being such a...such a...GUY! What to do? It's obvious. Give away his boat on Craigslist. Someone posted an ad in the Free category of Craigslist offering a '21 foot bayliner with 115 h.p. motor' for the taking. The small ad also stated 'having fight with husband phone vanessa @6045891455'. So I called. Vanessa was obviously too busy fighting with her husband to answer the phone so I left a message. While I waited for Vanessa to call me back with directions to my brand new boat, I did a bit of Internet sleuthing. I ran a reverse lookup on the phone number which returns the owner as a beleaguered Brian…
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26Mar 2010 by R&O No Comments

The Guitar Of My Dreams

Music, Observations, Of Interest, Technology
If you're a guitar player (like me) you're very aware of the Fender Stratocaster, Leo Fender's iconic guitar introduced in 1954 and since utilized and endorsed by top players around the world. The Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul, SG and Flying V are the most recognizable guitars and coveted by amateur and professional musicians alike. Forget those dorky video games...nothing says Rock Star like one of these guitars running through a nasty big amp with the volume set to 11. So how can they improve on a design that's proven the test of time? Electronics of course. Leave the basic guitar as-is but add some amazing electronics to allow musicians to change tone or tuning at the flip of a switch. I purchased one of the first production run Gibson Les…
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